Trina Solar establishes Canadian subsidiary and partners with Silfab Ontario

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Further changes to Trina Solar sees the establishment of a Canadian subsidiary, Trina Solar (Canada), with a sales and business development office in Ontario, Canada. Concurrently the company has formed an OEM partnership with Silfab Ontario, enabling Trina Solar to offer modules that are locally-manufactured for the Canadian market and thereby, take advantage of Ontario’s domestic content feed-in tariff. Headquartered in Mississauga, Ontario, Silfab will be responsible for providing Trina with sufficient production capacity to support its venture into the Canadian market.

"We have found a reliable and experienced partner in Trina Solar, a company that shares our belief in long-term collaboration," said Franco Traverso, Silfab Ontario founder. "Our mutual commitment to producing world-class quality products is the basis of our partnership. Together, we can work to best serve one of the most challenging and fastest growing PV markets in the world."

Despite Trina’s weak first quarter, anti-dumping margins imposed by the US Department of Commerce, the dispute between Japan, the EU and Ontario about the states’ contentious financial assistance and Ontario’s planned cuts to its FiT, the company is going full steam ahead with its expansion plans. This partnership is part of Trina Solar's long-term strategy for Canada. The company states it is looking to build strong customer relationships and work with a network of downstream PV companies to help grow the Canadian solar industry.

Trina Solar has also been poised to enter the Japanese market since February 2010 without a great deal of success. However, the company has inaugurated headquarters in Singapore to oversee the Asian market.

"Trina Solar sees the Canadian market as an opportunity to expand our sales efforts and create local jobs by providing clean energy that fights global warming," said Mark Paddison, Trina Solar's newly appointed company representative who has nearly three decades of experience working in Canadian and American PV sectors. "We foresee strong growth for the Canadian industry that could reach 1GW by 2015. We look forward to participating more directly in the growth of the industry and to collaborating with our Canadian partners to bring solar PV to the next level of adoption and popularity."

Last month, Trina Solar was recognized by three organizations for its sustainable practices, corporate viability and field performance. The Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition, in its annual global review of sustainable manufacturing practices, ranked the company first among solar panel manufacturers throughout the world.

The company was also placed first in PRTM's Sustainable Growth Index Field Performance. Finally, Trina Solar's panels were placed first on the California Energy Commission's PTC/STC ratio that estimates real-world panel performance.

"Trina Solar's world-class modules have proven that they deliver the performance that customers need," said Mark Kingsley, Trina Solar's chief commercial officer. "Bringing our award-winning modules will help the Canadian market grow and is the perfect extension of our commitment to solar in all of North America."

Now that the PV industry has unquestionably entered a new growth phase, all eyes are on which technologies will win through into the mainstream of PV manufacturing. PERC, n-type, p-type bifacial, heterojunction – all have become familiar terms in the ever-growing constellation of solar cell technologies. The question is which will offer manufacturers what they are looking for in improving efficiencies and cutting costs.

Although the past few years have proved extremely testing for PV equipment manufacturers, falling module prices have driven solar end-market demand to previously unseen levels. That demand is now starting to be felt by manufacturers, to the extent that leading companies are starting to talk about serious capacity expansions later this year and into 2015. This means that the next 12 months will be a critical period if companies throughout the supply chain are to take full advantage of the PV industry’s next growth phase.